Last week the Tennessee death row inmate picked up a pay phone at Nashville's Riverbend Maximum Security Prison and dialed his defense attorneys of nearly a decade. Christopher Minton and Jefferson Dorsey had received word only moments before that the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals had rendered its decision not to grant Workman a new trial.

The decision came unexpectedly. It had been five months since the defense team was granted the rare en banc -- meaning "entire bench" -- to evaluate new ballistics evidence and an affidavit stating that a key eyewitness had lied on the stand more than 20 years ago when he testified that he saw Workman shoot and kill a Memphis police officer during a fast-food restaurant robbery.

In silence, Workman listened to Dorsey tell him that the 14-member panel of judges had split their votes -- directly down party lines. Seven nominated by Democratic presidents had voted to rehear his case; seven Republican nominated judges voted to lift his stay. An en banc tie is extremely rare.

But according to the law, the tie vote means the 6th Circuit must allow a subordinate court's denial of appeal to stand. The tie is both a shock and disappointment to the defense. Although seven federal judges believe Workman's conviction is full of holes, especially since they viewed an X-ray discovered by the defense in February that casts doubt on whether Workman's gun was the murder weapon, Workman's stay has been lifted. After 17 years on death row, he is likely to be the second prisoner lethally injected in Tennessee since 1960.

The execution could heat up the presidential race. A former Tennessee senator whose campaign is based in Nashville, Al Gore has been loath to talk much about his position on the death penalty. His official Web site states that he is for the penalty, and his record supports that. Last year, he refused to lend his name to a Senate effort that would allow inmates to submit DNA that might prove their innocence.

David Mason, chairman of the political science department at the University of Memphis, says Workman's case might make it more difficult for Gore to point a sanctimonious finger at opponent George W. Bush for the Texas governor's record of executions.

"But being the acting governor of a state and thus wielding direct power to grant clemency is different than being a senator or being vice president," says Mason. "It's fair to be more critical of Bush. I don't know of any case where a vice president has stepped in to influence a governor, especially when you consider Gore is a Democrat and Tennessee's governor is a Republican."

Five media spokespeople in the Gore campaign had no knowledge of the case at all, including Gore's main spokesperson in Nashville, Jano Cabrern, who would only say, "Gore supports the death penalty for heinous crimes and thinks that the American people agree with him."

Workman's execution will be scheduled this week, just as fresh doubts are emerging about the death penalty's fairness. On Tuesday, the Justice Department issued a survey finding wide disparities in the way death sentences are implemented. As a white man, Workman does not fit the profile of those capital convicts disproportionately sentenced to death -- about 80 percent are minorities. But as a poor, drug-addicted man convicted in one of the federal districts in which the death penalty is most often recommended by prosecutors, Workman is a prime example of the way class and geography figure into justice.

That is little consolation to Workman's defense team, which now has two options. It can appeal to the Supreme Court. But the chances of the highest court accepting the case are slim because it usually decides issues of legality, not guilt or innocence. Clemency from Tennessee Gov. Don Sundquist is unlikely. Sundquist will not comment about the case, but he, too, says he "believes in the death penalty for heinous crimes," and that he will "weigh every case on its own merits."

Dorsey has explained those choices to Workman.

"Philip is a very strong person, very businesslike and never hopeless," says Dorsey. "He wants to know what our next move is."

Dorsey had been quoted in the press as saying Workman was "stunned and upset."

"I'm the one who's stunned and upset," Dorsey explains. "I know what our options are and they aren't very good. Frankly, I'm feeling a sense of doom."

Within hours of the 6th Circuit's ruling, Tennessee Attorney General Paul Summers filed a request with the state supreme court to set an execution date. The defense has 10 days, ending Friday, to reply. A vocal opponent of commuting Workman's sentence, Summers once told reporters that it didn't matter if the bullet from Workman's .45 killed Lt. Ronald Oliver while the two struggled outside a Memphis Wendy's restaurant during a robbery Workman admits he committed. Workman is "morally responsible," Summers said.

"It's tragic that we are not just trying to prove through legal means that there is reasonable doubt that Philip didn't kill Oliver," says Dorsey. "There are a lot of people who want vengeance for the death of a cop."

Politics 2000: Unflinching daily political news, analysis and commentary.